Rufus Wainwright found an ideal way to stage a musical rebellion against his parents as a 13-year-old in the 1980s, but it wasn’t through punk-rock, hip-hop or synth-pop.
“My rebellion was getting into opera!” said the now 48-year-old singer-songwriter and opera composer. “My parents were both musicians in rock ‘n’ roll bands. For them, opera was their parents’ music and part of ‘the elite.’ So, when I got into opera at a very young age, that was a total rebellion, especially for my father, who dislikes opera to this day. My mother ended up adoring opera, and we went on that journey together.”
His mother, Kate McGarrigle, died of cancer in 2010. Together with her sister, Anna, Kate made 10 albums between 1976 and 2005. Some of the luminous songs Kate wrote were recorded by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris (“I’ve Had Enough”), Anne Sofie von Otter and Elvis Costello (“Go Leave”) and Rufus’ father, Loudon Wainwright III (“Come a Long Way”).
Loudon, best known for his 1973 novelty hit “Dead Skunk,” has made more than two dozen albums. Loudon and Kate divorced when Rufus was 3.
‘Best songwriter on the planet’
Released in 1998, Rufus’ debut album, “Rufus Wainwright,” earned widespread acclaim and Rolling Stone’s designation as Best New Artist of the year. Elton John hailed him as “the best songwriter on the planet.” Others marveled at how adroitly the younger Wainwright’s lushly orchestrated music harkened back decades before the birth of rock to the work of Stephen Foster, Al Jolson and Cole Porter.
His rich, soaring vocals led a friend to describe Wainwright’s cabaret-tinged singing as “popera.” He studied composition for a year at McGill University in Montreal, where he grew up with his Canadian mother. His love for opera has never waned.
Wainwright’s first opera, 2009’s “Prima Donna,” was commissioned by New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater. His second, “Hardian,” debuted in 2018 at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
“I’d love to compose more operas,” said Wainwright, whose impassioned version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is featured on the 2001 “Shrek” film soundtrack album. “But I always knew I’d be more of a pop singer than an opera singer.”
He splits the difference on “Peaceful Afternoon,” a standout number from his 2020 album, “Unfollow the Rules,” and on “Going to a Town.” The latter is an enchanting song from Wainwright’s 2021 album, “Unfollow the Rules — The Paramour Sessions,” which teams him with a string quartet for stripped-down versions of songs from “Unfollow the Rules.”
His performances on both “Peaceful Afternoon” and “Going to a Town” evoke the heavenly elan of vocal giant and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Roy Orbison. In turn, the late Orbison’s singing at times evoked Carlo Bergonzi, the light tenor who created the title role in Jacopo Napoli’s 1952 opera “Masaniello.”
“That’s a great compliment! Thank you so much,” Wainwright said.
“I’ve always been fascinated by Orbison. As an opera lover, I can hear a connection between him and the way opera singers project. He had the same vocal power as Pavarotti and Caruso.”
Issues of mortality
Beyond its musical resonance, Wainwright credits his love of opera for helping him to embrace his emotions as a young gay man, and — later — to address issues of mortality as the AIDS pandemic surged in the 1980s and 1990s.
His mortality was front and center in 2002 when he spent a month at Minnesota’s Hazelden addiction treatment center. His stay was prompted by years of alcohol and drug abuse.
In 2008, six years after he got clean and sober, Wainwright wrote the song “Patience is a Virtue.” It reflected his contentment after the harrowing years of what he once described as a drug-fueled “gay hell.”
“I’ve learned to be patient over the years,” said Wainwright, whose sisters, Martha and Lucy, are also singer-songwriters.
